Takeaways From #GivingTuesday

Fundraisers have a lot to learn from the success of #GivingTuesday — make it simple, make it social. At the SMWNYC event — Giving Gangham Style: An Ideathon with the #GivingTuesday Team — a social gooderati crowd gathered eager to learn more about the simple-social potion and commune around this holy day.

The #GivingTuesday team panelist, Henry Timms (92Y) Sharon Feder (Mashable) and Aaron Sherinian (UN Foundation) said it all started with a good hook that latched on to the start of the giving season and the Black Friday, Cyber Monday consumer exhaustion. With a good idea in hand, the next step was to go social. Yet this wasn’t to tell everyone what to do, but to invite everyone to the party. The first gift made was this idea to anyone who wanted to get involved.

When 2,600 partners and nonprofits jumped on the platform, the #GivingTuesday team were gracious hosts. They facilitated the event, listened to their guests and then made changes based on their suggestions. Then when someone gave, they felt good about it, felt apart of something and felt ok to brag tweet about their philanthropic ways.

+ Listen more than you speak.
+ When you have a great idea, collaborate.
+ Use every tool at your disposable.

In other words, anti-nothing and pro-everything is the giving mantra. But how did this diner-menu strategy not become overwhelming? Again, it was that simple hook and hashtag that acted as a north star guiding everyone to one call to action on one day — give on Tuesday. All everyone else had to do is point to that same star and say yes.